I’m going to season my Char-Griller tonight. The fist time food will see the gill will be this Saturday. My neighbor asked me to do some Beer Can Chicken, for some company he has coming over. My question to you is. Do you think the gill will handle 6 Beer Can Chickens and should I set up the indirect heat front to rear or left to right? Lastly how long do you think 6 Beer Can Chickens should take?

BigDaddy I'm not as familiar with your smoker as the guys that have it. But I believe the grate is adjustable. If so you’ll need to lower it to allow head room (or headless room) for the chickens to stand up. It normally takes 9-10 inches for a fryer. I believe that the 20”x30” grate will be big enough to hold them all at once with enough room between for airflow. It will be the lid’s clearance that you’ll need to watch. If you sit the hens facing the center of the grate, they will lean away from the outside edge and probably fix. Hopefully you’ll get better advice from an owner before long.

Congratulation on your new grill,
Did you see my post on how to season it? And did you get the side firebox?
You can do 6 Beer can chicken easily if you’re using the side firebox. If your using the grill part only, then I don’t think you can do more than three at a time. I would do indirect left to right and not front to back. The reason is the charcoal tray sits more in the center of the grill, and it’s not wide enough to do front to back. If you’re cooking the chicken in the grill, they’ll take about 2-3 hrs at 350-375 degrees (for 3 chickens). If you’re using the side firebox and cooking 6 chickens at 225-250 degrees, I would count on 6-8 hours. I cooked one beer can chicken last weekend and it took 5 hours (see Memorial Day show case thread). It was a big chicken, and I had some other stuff cooking a long with it. I kept the temp between 225-250 the whole time (using the side firebox). I found it very helpful to place a small grate on top of the charcoal tray and place the chicken on top of that. That gave me more clearance, and I did not have to remove the warming rack. If you’re using the grill part to cook, then you may have to remove the warming rack (based on how big the chickens are). Let me know if you have any other questions.
Good luck, and please let us know how it turns out.

Thanks for the info. I know you da man when it comes to this Char-Griller… so I’ll probably bug you a lot while I tune my skills with it… I hope that’s cool with you.

Yes, on the side fire box. I wasn’t going to use the side firebox, but if you think that would be wise, I will. The only reason I wasn’t going to use it is because the neighbor I’m doing this for is real gun-shy about smoking. I think he had some “Over Smoked” meat at sometime. So I was just going to do an indirect grill on the chickens. But if you think I can get all 6 chickens on my using the side box. I’ll talk him in to it. So would you recommend using a good lump charcoal in the side firebox or should I get some hardwood?

BigDaddy put the chicken is the main cooking chamber and build your fire in the firebox. If you use lump charcoal or briquettes only, you will not have a strong smoke flavor. You can control the amount of smoke flavor by how much hardwood you add to the fire.

Your neighbor may have gotten meat with too much smoke or stale bitter smoke which caused an acrid taste to the food. You should use at least a little hardwood and lightly smoke the chicken just to show him how good it is when it's done right. He has the ultimate call if it's his food, but at least make the suggestion. Fruit woods are lighter in flavor so you might want to try apple, peach, or mulberry. I like a mixture of pecan and apple.

Bob is absolutely correct.
I would defiantly use the side firebox and follow Bob’s suggestions. The side firebox can be used as a way of indirect cooking, if you don’t want the smoke flavor, don’t use wood. You’ll be getting the same results with plain charcoal as you would with using the grill section. To cook 6 chickens, you’ll have to remove all the grates that came with the grill. Leave the charcoal tray in place (but leave it empty). Place a couple of foil pans on it (or one large one) halfway full of warm water, and then place one long grate or 2 small ones on top of the water pan. This will give you the most clearance (see the picture below). Build up the fire in the side box and maintain the temp between 225-250. Allow extra cooking time, since this is your first time using. Please let me know if you have any questions, it’s quite cool with me.
Let me know if you want to omit the water pan, I can give you hints on that as well.
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Looks like it’s a go for the firebox. I met my buddy at lunch and we talked about it. He said let’s go for it. So we decided to do half the chickens and half the Tri-Tips on my unit (using the firebox) and half and half on his Webers (he has two).

So do you think 3 (3 lb) Tri-Tips and 3 Chickens would have about the same cooking time…? I’m thinking about 4 hours.

O.K., here it is about the cooking time with this smoker,
You’ll have to decide whether you’re going to use a water pan or not. If you use a water pan, your cooking time will be longer. The advantage of using water is to prevent temperature spikes. That means you’ll have to do a lot of vent control and temp monitoring if you're not using a water pan. Temp spikes are not a big issue when it comes to cooking chicken. And the moisture issue is also resolved (due to having liquid inside the chicken). However, when you’re cooking stuff that requires consistent low temp and a good amount of moisture (such as brisket, pork butt), you will have to use it. Again, I advise you to give it extra time, since this is your first time using this smoker.
Second,
I would never cook a Tri-Tip roast in the smoker set on low temp. Tri-Tip requires higher temp (350-375) and a combination of direct and indirect cooking method. Check out this link for cooking tips:
http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/tritip1.htmlIf you cook the Tri-Tip with the chicken for that amount of time, you will end up with a dry and tough piece of meat. It’s better to use your friends Weber for the Tri-Tips and your smoker for the chickens.
I hope this helps with your planning.

I seasoned the grill last night… well partly… I’m going to run it through another heat cycle tonight. I attempted to do your seasoning process, but after the first heat cycle, when I tried to scrub off the gunk it wouldn’t come off, it was just sticky. So, I just added some oil to the inside and got her up to about 325 and then scrubbed it… some came off, but not all of it. Then I oiled it again and added some hickory wood and got some smoke rolling out of it and it started to get the nice bronze look to it. So I’m going to give it another run tonight… and it should be ready for the first cooking on Saturday.

Also,
You’ll love this. I had some cast iron grates that I use for my outside brick built-in. They are about 3 inched shorter that the ones that come with the grill… so, I’m able to put them inside the grill and they sit about 5 inches off the bottom… plenty of room to fit a drip pan below and give me a lot more head room. I’ll try and take some pics tonight and show.